It is generally known that the human body has self-healing ability, i.e., the ability to spontaneously cure diseases, as well as the resistance against various kinds of diseases. The self-healing ability occurs naturally in the human body to keep healthy. For example, where there is a fever due to cold or body aches, the sweat pores are open and the sweat is ejected to lower the body temperature. In another example, in case of eating spoiled food or excessively drinking, it may cause vomiting to protect the body.
There is also a self-healing substance in the subcutaneous layer of the human body. For example, when a foreign substance enters the subcutaneous layer, the self-healing substances are generated and surround the foreign substance to protect the subcutaneous tissue from the foreign substance. As a result, the self-healing substance has a function of strengthening the muscles inside the subcutaneous layer. Using this function, so-called catgut-embedding therapy and pharmaco-thread injecting therapy have been developed.
The pharmaco-thread injecting therapy is a treatment that injects harmless threads (e.g., surgical absorbable sutures) into spots for acupuncture, painful spots, wrinkled or sagged spots, etc. of the human body through an injection kit. When a needle is inserted into the human body, the thread is injected into the subcutaneous layer along the needle, and when the needle is pulled out, the injected thread is separated from the needle and remains in the human body. This therapy has advantages such as simplification of procedure and less burden on the patient in comparison with the catgut-embedding therapy that requires the incision of the skin, the insertion of the thread, and suturing.
However, since the thread injected into the body through a conventional injection kit is a thin absorbable suture thread, the thread placed in the subcutaneous tissue has a small surface area and is melted after about six months. Therefore, the amount of generated self-healing substances is not sufficient. In addition, the thread is often broken or weakened due to a sharp tip of the needle in a process of being injected into the human body.
In order to solve the above problems, Korean Patent No. 10-1748755 (hereinafter referred to as one prior art) discloses an apparatus for inserting a medical thread composed of an absorbable suture thread and a gold thread. This thread can be used for a long time while increasing the amount of self-healing substances generated thereby. Further, a needle has a thread guide groove at the tip thereof, so that it is possible to prevent the medical thread from being broken or weakened when the needle is inserted into the human body.
FIG. 1 is an exploded view showing an apparatus for inserting a medical thread according to one prior art, and FIG. 2A is a partially cross-sectional view showing the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2A, a conventional medical thread inserting apparatus 100 includes an injection needle 110, a needle holder 120, a medical thread 130, and a cover 140. The injection needle 110 has an inclined portion 112 at one end thereof and also has a hollow portion (not shown) formed therein from the inclined portion 112 in the longitudinal direction. The hollow portion allows the injection needle 110 to be easily inserted into the human body. The needle holder 120 is formed of metal or synthetic resin and mounted on the other end of the injection needle 110. The medical thread 130 is formed of an absorbable suture thread 132 and a gold thread 134. A part of the absorbable suture thread 132 is inserted into the hollow portion (not shown), and the other part is disposed outside the injection needle 110. The gold thread 134 fixedly supports the absorbable suture thread 132 to the injection needle 110. The cover 140 protects the injection needle 110 and the medical thread 130.
As shown in FIG. 2A, the absorbable suture thread 132 of the medical thread 130 is disposed along the longitudinal outer surface of the needle 110. In addition, the gold thread 134 may be configured to be spirally wound on the absorbable suture thread 132 in the longitudinal direction, or may be configured to form a twisted structure along with the absorbable suture thread 132.
FIG. 2B is a view showing a process of using the medical thread inserting apparatus shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 2B, after the cover 140 of the medical thread inserting apparatus 100 is removed, the injection needle 110 is brought into close contact with a muscle part to be treated. Then, the needle holder 120 is pressed to insert the injection needle 110 provided with the medical thread 130 into the human body. When the injection needle 110 is inserted into the human body, the medical thread 130 provided in the injection needle 110 is also moved to an inserted position of the injection needle 110 into the human body. Thereafter, when the injection needle 110 is pull out from the human body, the medical thread 130 fixedly remains in the human body to generate self-healing substances.
As described above, the medical thread 130 injected into the human body through the injection needle 110 causes the self-healing substances to gather around the medical thread 130. Accordingly, the self-healing substances having a function of strengthening muscles improve the elasticity of wrinkled skin.
In addition, the gold thread 134 constituting the medical thread 130 injected into a damaged part of the human body acts as a foreign matter. Therefore, the gold thread 134 induces the self-healing substances to be collected in the damaged part and allows the damaged part to be healed faster. Normally, the gold thread is made of pure gold, has a very small diameter (e.g., 0.1 to 0.2 mm), and is sterilized for medicinal purposes. As well known in the art, the gold thread is used for a special acupuncture technique that injects the gold thread into the subcutaneous muscles of the adaptive acupuncture points or pressure points of the human body to prevent and treat diseases.
However, in the above-described medical thread inserting apparatus 100, the injection needle 110 should have the hollow portion (not shown) formed therein from the inclined portion 112 such that a part of the absorbable suture thread 132 and a part of the gold thread 134 are inserted into the injection needle 110. Since the injection needle 110 has a long cylindrical form having a very small diameter (e.g., about 1 to 1.5 mm) to be inserted into the skin of the human body, it is very difficult to form the hollow portion (not shown) inside the injection needle 110 in the longitudinal direction. Further, in case of having to use an ultrafine machining technique, the manufacturing cost of the injection needle 110 is greatly increased.
In addition, even if it is possible to form the hollow portion (not shown) in the injection needle 110, another problem that it is very difficult to insert a part of the absorbable suture thread 132 and a part of the gold thread 134 into the hollow portion having a very small diameter arises.
Further, since the above-described medical thread inserting apparatus 100 is designed to inject the medical thread 130 composed of the absorbable suture thread 132 and the gold thread 134, it is not suitable for an apparatus for injecting only the gold thread 134.
Meanwhile, according to another prior art, a dual suturing needle set having a gold thread for a hair loss treatment has been developed and used.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a dual suturing needle set having a gold thread for a hair loss treatment according to another prior art. This dual suturing needle set is disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0010451, which was filed on Jan. 28, 2016 by the same inventors as those of this application and registered as Korean Patent No. 10-1696855 on Jan. 10, 2017.
As shown in FIG. 3, the dual suturing needle set for a hair loss treatment according to another prior art includes a suture thread 20, a first needle 10, and a second needle 30. The suture thread 20 is composed of a plurality of strands having a gold thread. One end of the suture thread 20 is inserted in the first needle 10, and the other end is inserted in the second needle 30. Each of the first and second needles 10 and 30 has a needle part 12 or 32 formed at one end thereof, and may have an installation groove 14 or 34 formed with a predetermined depth at the other end thereof to allow the suture thread 20 to be inserted. The first and second needles 10 and 20 may have different lengths and each may have a bent part 16 or 36 formed with a predetermined angle. Each of the bent parts 16 and 36 may be located adjacent to the inner side of the installation groove 14 or 34 of each the first and second needles 10 and 30.
The above-described dual suturing needle set uses the suture thread 20 in which a gold thread as a non-absorbable suture thread 24 is wound on the surface of an absorbable suture thread 22 at predetermined intervals, thereby promoting hair formation and development. Also, using a set of long and short bent-form needles engaged with both ends of the suture thread 20 achieves an advantage of easily performing a treatment. However, the following problems still remain.
As described above, in the suture thread 20, the gold thread, which is the non-absorbable suture thread 24, is wound on the surface of the absorbable suture thread 22 at predetermined intervals with one or more strands. In order to treat the absorbable suture thread 22 and the non-absorbable suture thread 24 as one suture thread, it is required to compress the ends of the suture thread 20 by applying heat and pressure such that the non-absorbable suture thread 24 having a relatively small diameter is attached to the absorbable suture thread 22 having a relatively large diameter. Further, a compressed part 26 is required to allow the ends of the suture thread 20 to be easily inserted into the installation grooves 14 and 34 of the first and second needles 10 and 30, respectively. Therefore, it is not easy to manufacture the suture thread itself, and also the manufacturing cost of the dual suturing needle set is increased.
In case of the above-described dual suturing needle set, a process of inserting and withdrawing the first needle 10 having a greater length into and from the biological tissue of the treatment area is repeated to suture the biological tissue of the treatment area. Then, the second needle 30 having a smaller length is withdrawn through a hole from which the first needle 10 is withdrawn, and a knot is inserted into the hole to complete the treatment. Therefore, this dual suturing needle set not only has a drawback of requiring two needles 10 and 30, but also causes a complicated and difficult operation including withdrawing the first needle 10 through a hole, then withdrawing the second needle 30 through the same hole, forming a knot, and inserting the knot into the hole.
Accordingly, a new technique to solve the above-described problems is required.